Final Reflection – ETEC 565
Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.
~Henry L. Doherty
Be a student all your life? I certainly feel as if I have been. Thirteen years of public school (Kindergarten included), five years of post secondary at the University of British Columbia (UBC), two years at Gonzaga, and now back to UBC for several years (not to mention the hundreds of professional development opportunities availed). I will admit that I am tiring of the constant study, readings, deadlines, and assignments but I am not tiring of the learning.
It was in my Flight Path that I expressed my desire to “master purposeful use of technologies” (Flick, 2011). (Perhaps I should have used a word other than master.) I have developed much technological skill and acquired good knowledge but I have mastered little. Could anyone ever master technology? It is ever evolving. Technology is not a stable resource such as an article, a book, or a video. It is a resource that changes constantly as the community of learners accessing the tools and the product influence it moment by moment. 21st Century learners, of which I am one, do not need to master content or tools, we need to master learning.
I shared in my flight path my ultimate goal for ETEC 565 and for my time spent in MET. It is my privilege to work with teachers and teachers in training and I hope to have some influence in revolutionizing education (Flick, 2011) in my district and province. I realized that I facilitate learning opportunities that are akin to those I have participated in and found valuable and engaging. There was much to find in this course that was valuable and engaging.
I believe that my classroom learning environment has always been learner, knowledge, and community oriented (Anderson, 2008) but it was in Module 3 where I understood that an online environment could be the same. I reflected back upon the personal learning opportunities to date in MET. The most satisfying personal learning opportunities have been those that within this online, asynchronous environment, have been crafted to ensure the learner was participating in a community of learning and able to choose and or tailor the learning to meet their own needs.
I teach as I have learned. The greatest gift of ETEC 565 has been that I have not been just a participant in purposeful online learning but that I was engaged in activities that enabled me to critique and create learning activities. I am pleased with my Moodle assignment. This is the second Moodle course that I have created. The first was a lengthy list of uploads and attachments. This effort was a vast improvement. As I peruse the Moodle assignments of others I realize that I have great room for growth using this format and in the activities developed.
At times during ETEC 565 and while competing assignments, I did experience much challenge. Thank goodness that I did not take this course earlier in my MET experience. I may have been frustrated to the point where I would have reconsidered my decision to embark on this learning journey. To be successful in this course more technology expertise and pedagogical understanding needed to be in place then what I began my MET studies with.
I confess that my elearning tool kit experience was limited. I always intended to return to that section of each module but infrequently did. I have spent hours investigating Moodle, Wiki, and HTML in UBC created resources, other, Youtube, etc. I investigated Synchronous and asynchronous communication. I have spent time today trying to rectify my neglect of that component of the course and will continue to do so today. While reviewing the module content and elearning tool kit I realize that there are activities that I have overlooked. I will spend time today with these activities. I will post and complete activities as is appropriate.
I leave this course prepared to do my professional best to choose technologies with educational consideration – not just choose technology for technology’s sake. Influenced by the Seven Principles of Good Learning (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996) and Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s Community of Inquiry Model (2000) I will endeavor to purposefully choose the content and the activities that in which my students will build relationships with me, each other, and the learning.
I will attempt to move forward my facilitating with Moodle. Moodle is still the platform available to me in district and through Selkirk College. I continue to develop and refine online professional development wikis and indigenous wiki resources for my district. This year the professional learning groups that I facilitate (Numeracy Lead Teachers, First Steps in Math, Literacy Circles, Guided Reading, Assessment for Learning) will be accompanied by a wiki, webpage, Moodle, or yet to be learned resource that is chosen because it best enhances the learning objectives.
I will not be a top MET student nor a most memorable MET student. I am a fifty-one year old woman who has been teaching for almost twenty five years. I earn my living doing what I have great passion for. I may retire in seven years – or not. Why do I do this? I do this because hundreds of students from public school to beyond will still be impacted by the skills that I bring to the classroom. I do this because I have young children ages ten and thirteen and it is imperative that I better understand their world. I do this because I am the district Learning Coordinator. I do this because truth be told, I can’t stop being a learner. I will be a student all my life – perhaps minus the deadlines.
Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.
Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6.
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm
Flick, D. (2011, May). My etec 565 flight path [Web log message]. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/flick/flight-path-2/
Flick, D. (2011, June 12). Education revolution [Web log message]. Retrieved from https://blogs.ubc.ca/flick/blogs/?preview=true&preview_id=103&preview_nonce=b3229717ac